1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to electronic percussion instruments, in particular to an electronic percussion instrument that has a rim part separate from a hoop part that imparts tension to the head and a method of arranging the rim part, hoop part, and head part forming an electronic percussion instrument.
2. Related Art
Various electronic percussion instruments have been proposed, including electronic drums based on acoustic drums. These electronic drums have been formed such that a sensor detects the vibrations occurring when the electronic drum is hit. The detected signal from the sensor controls a sound source that forms musical notes in proportion to the force of the hit.
Methods for playing an acoustic drum have included the ordinary playing method of hitting only the surface (head) and the rim shot playing method. The rim shot playing method generally includes two types of playing methods: the open rim shot where the rim and the hitting surface (head) are hit simultaneously creating the drum's unique harmonic overtone effect, and the closed rim shot where only the rim is hit creating the “katsu-katsu” percussive sound.
As a result, previous embodiments of electronic percussion instruments comprise a head used as a hitting surface positioned on the upper surface of a hollow body part, a head sensor that detects the vibrations due to hits to the head, and a rim sensor that detects the vibrations due to hits to the rim, allowing for the reproduction of a rim shot based on the signals detected by these two sensors.
In the structure described above, the outer circumference of the head is secured with screws that extend through the rim and into the body part. Therefore, when adjusting the tension of the head, the distance between the head and the tip of the rim changes, and playing a rim shot becomes difficult. For example, when the head is new, the distance between the upper surface of the head and the tip of the rim is relatively substantial. However, when the head stretches from use, screws that impart tension to the head are turned to maintain tension. When this is done, the distance between the tip of the rim and the upper surface of the head decreases. The changed distance makes hitting the rim with the central part of a stick while at the same time hitting the upper surface of the head with the tip of the stick in order to play a rim shot more difficult.
Furthermore, with the rim attachment structure described above, when the rim is hit strongly, the rim part is pushed downward, causing the force applied to the screws that impart tension to the head to change for a moment. The change in force tends to loosen the screws.
In addition, there is the problem that in the embodiments where the outer circumference of the head is screwed into the body part through the rim, when the rim is hit, the vibration is transmitted to the head and the head sensor detects the vibration of the head from the rim shot. It is therefore difficult to accurately detect a hit to the head and a hit to the rim independently, and a player cannot obtain the musical note intended.
In addition, a problem arises in embodiments where the head sensor is placed substantially in the center of the body part, and vibrations are detected via a cushion placed in the central part of the head. When the area directly above the cushion is hit, a larger output is detected and the detected output decreases the further away from the center the head is hit. Consequently, even if a player hits the head with the same strength, the size of the output obtained differs depending on the location of the hit. In the case of a percussion instrument, a change of the sound volume or tone quality, called a wide dynamic range, should be produced in response to the force of a hit. In the above-mentioned embodiment where the size of the vibrations that can be detected differs depending on the location of the hit, it is difficult to ensure a wide dynamic range.